Third OIE/FAO-APHCA Regional Workshop and Working Group Meeting
on BSE and Other Prion Diseases, in collaboration with CAHEC
(Qingdao, P.R. China, 23-25 September 2008)
The participants were from 8 countries, i.e. China PR, India, Korea RO, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Japan. Dr L. Knopf from OIE Central Bureau and Drs A.Kamakawa and S. Shin from OIE Asia-Pacific attended the Workshop/Meeting, from the OIE side.
It was a follow-up to the first and second regional hands-on training workshops and WG meetings held in Tsukuba Science City, Japan in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
The two-day Workshop was attended by 49 participants including 36 Chinese observers such as officers of Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Animal Disease Control and Prevention Centers of major cattle raising provinces, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Centers (CAHEC) scientists and four national TSE diagnostic laboratories.
Opening addresses were made by the co-organiser: Dr A. Kamakawa from OIE Asia-Pacific and Dr. Vishnu Songkitti, Liaison officer for FAO-APHCA, on the background and objectives, and the welcome by the host: Dr Hongchao Ma, Deputy Director of CAHEC, and by Dr Hong Zhang, Deputy Director General of Veterinary Bureau, MOA.
There were presentations from three resource persons, i.e. (1) Dr T. Yokoyama, NIAH, Japan - OIE Reference Laboratory for BSE, on the advances in TSE diagnostics and the global situation update, TSE pathogenesis and prion distribution; (2) Dr T. Tsutsui, NIAH, Japan, on the epidemiological analyses of the Japanese BSE cases, including modelling for strategy evaluation; and (3) Dr L. Knopf on the OIE official animal disease status recognition and the international standards for BSE.
Dr A.B. Negi (India), Dr Y-H. Lee (Korea RO), Dr F. A. H. Abdul Kadir (Malaysia), Dr G. Dorj (Mongolia), Dr C. M. Nalo-Ochona (Philippines), Dr O. Pasavorakul (Thailand) and Dr Z. Wang (China PR) presented on the national surveillance for BSE and other prion diseases (TSEs).